Ways to Prevent Identity Theft

Don’t Let Thieves Ruin Your Credit — Steps to Prevent ID Theft

Today’s post is from “Mr. Credit Card” of Ask Mr. Credit Card. Today, he is going to list some steps you could take to prevent identity theft. While nothing is fool-proof, these steps go a long way to preventing it from happening to you. He has also recently compiled a comparison table of the available identity theft protection services available.

There are few things in life that are worse than a thieving, identity-stealing, credit burglar who lives almost solely off of ruining the identities and credit scores of those that work diligently through budgeting and sometimes pure financial savvy to maintain a clean credit report. Little do most of us know, it could take a few minutes and one fell swoop of one of these credit thieves to undo years of hard work. Granted, most credit cards have fraud protection and consumers are seldom held responsible for unauthorized charges, but it could take just as much work and time to repair what has been destroyed if you are a victim of identity theft.

So how do the financially savvy protect their credit from these thieves? Here are tips for protecting your identity and credit:

Legitimate companies don’t ask for your information on the phone –credit card information, anyway. Do not give your credit card number out over the telephone, unless you have initiated the phone call and know it is a reputable company (say for instance, you call a store to make a purchase.) One of the biggest scams occurs when shady company calls inattentive card holder and says there is some kind of problem with the account and they need to verify the card information. Credit companies do not call customers to verify account numbers. Ever.

Dumpster Divers/Credit Thieves Not all dumpster divers are credit thieves, but some are so it is a good rule of thumb to shred all credit applications and paperwork that includes your personal identification. Your complete identity can easily be stolen with just a couple pieces of paper, old bills, or applications. Buy a shredder.

Check Over All Statements thoroughly. Go through all purchases and payments and make sure you can identify everything, even very small amounts. This will not only keep you on top of mis-billed activity, you may also be able to identify any funny business right away, as opposed to months later.

Never Carry Your PIN It’s difficult to remember the PINs for emails, store accounts, bank accounts and everything else that requires a PIN. Do not ever write it on your credit card or carry it with you. If by some stroke of bad luck, your purse or wallet is lost or stolen, you’re giving identity thieves an open door to your finances and credit and in a matter of minutes, your credit could be headed for disaster.

Check Your Credit Report Check your credit at least once a year (free at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/) to make sure there aren’t any extra accounts or errors included. Identity theft occurs most often between the ages of 18 and 29 most likely because this is the age range where the fraud will go on undetected the longest. If you find any errors or unidentified accounts, dispute them with the credit bureau immediately.

Protect Your SSN Your Social Security Number is the prime target for credit thieves. Limit who you give it out to, if a company requires your SSN, ask if there’s another identifiable number that would work. If a job requires it on an application, you can ask to disclose it at the interview or if a background check is required. Additionally, do not carry your Social Security card in your purse or wallet and likewise, don’t keep it on slips of paper or on anything else you carry frequently.

Watch Out for Phishing Emails Phishing occurs when someone pretends to be from a bank or retailer (eBay, Bank of America) and sends an email with a link to “verify” your account information. The message is usually some kind of emergency and requires you to respond right away, creating panic in many users who inevitably click on the link and fill in the information requested, giving the identity thieves all of the information they need to access your account.

Safety Online Almost every bill and service is available online and requires a certain amount of trust just to deal with everyday bills and shopping. Anytime you’re paying online, make sure it is a secure website with strong privacy and security protection.

Consider putting on Fraud Alerts Sometimes, things happen that are beyond your control. For example, a company might have an employee lose a laptop that contains their customers’ data including social security. When something like that happens, it could be a prudent move to actually put fraud alerts on your credit report. Once that is done, a creditor needs your approval to actually check your credit report. That is another barrier to prevent those who may have stolen your ID from actually getting credit under your name.

Getting Identity Theft Protection Services For those of you who are really paranoid about ID theft, there are many services that will do a lot of monitoring for you and provide you with assistance in resolving any future ID theft issues. Many of these services monitor public databases, court records, public medical databases and other internet black market sites to see if your name or address is being used by others. Example of such services include Lifelock. While these services charge a monthly fee, they provide an additional layer of monitoring.

It is still safer to conduct business online and even complete a secure online form than to hand your card over to a waiter in a restaurant, but if you keep some of these tips for protecting your identity in mind, you may be able to outsmart some of the credit and identity thieves that are lurking out there. If anything, you will at least make their “jobs” a little more difficult.

Have any of you experienced Identity Theft? I had my wallet stolen once, years ago, and that was pain enough. I like to think that no one would want to steal my identity because, hey, I don’t have anything to steal! But the truth is, we’re all in danger of it happening to us. These tips are great common sense as well as extra precautionary measures that we should all think about taking.